International Interfaith Organisations Network

Milestones in Recent Catholic-Jewish Relations:
  Dear friends,   Scarboro Missions in Toronto is proud to announce the publication of this important document; this original piece of research will be of great value to anyone in the field of Christian-Jewish dialogue.

This document chronicles, on a year-by-year basis, the dramatic advances in Catholic-Jewish dialogue since the Second Vatican Council. This detailed profile of significant changes and developments in Catholic-Jewish relations will be very useful to teachers, students, researchers, historians, interfaith practicioners and others. This document can be downloaded free of charge.

Here is the link:   http://www.scarboromissions.ca/Interfaith_dialogue/catholic_jewish_relations.php  

Peace,

On Friday 17^th May, 2009, Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate, was detained on her entry into Houston Airport, USA, by Homeland Security Immigration.

Maguire was on her way home to Northern Ireland, after attending a 3 day conference in Guatemala, which was hosted by herself and three Sister Nobel Peace Laureates, Rigoberta Menchu, Jody Williams, and Shirin Ebadi.   150 women activists from around the World attended the Nobel Womens’ Conference to discuss, ‘Redefining Democracy, Human Rights and Peace.’

Maguire was held for two hours, during which she was questioned, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned.  This resulted in her missing her flight. She was released upon the actions of the Nobel Women’s Initiatives representatives’ who insisted on her immediate release.

Upon release Maguire said:

‘This kind of behaviour and treatment is unacceptable.  I have always been inspired by the American Peace Movement and consider an honour to be able to support them in their work for a peaceful humanity, truly in the spirit of the American people and their inspiration Constitution of freedom and justice for all.

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate http://www.peacepeople.com

24^th Israeli-Palestinian retreat of interfaith encounter.

In the afternoon of April 30^th , 2009, we opened the 24^th Israeli-Palestinian retreat of interfaith encounter. It was again a joint retreat of the Interfaith Encounter Association and the Hope Flowers School, sponsored by Canada’s Networking for Peace program – to whom we are deeply grateful. 

We began by briefly introducing the two organizations and their activities, followed by introduction of the agenda for the retreat and its guiding principles. Then participants went into small conversation groups for a session of self-introduction. They first shared their life story and then they each shared a story of a personal meaningful experience of prayer. 

Conversations were so alive that it was difficult to break for dinner and when we did – they continued during the meal.

After dinner we had a joint social evening with happy songs led by Ribhi’s oud for many hours.

 The morning started with the Jewish perspective. The short presentation of prayer in Judaism was given by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. Rabbi Sylvester shared a story he heard from his rabbi about a child taken by his father to the synagogue for the first time. He is so touched by the sincerity and intensity of the prayer that he feels overwhelmed with his wish to pray to God, but as he doesn’t know to read he reaches to his whistle and blows it loudly. Many are upset but the rabbi says that all the prayers of the community were elevated to God thanks to the pure intention of this whistle. This story stresses the most important element – which is the heart’s yearning to God. But one should also know the procedures and follow them.

The guiding principle is to remain in connection with God all the time. There are three daily prayers – in the morning, afternoon and evening. They are coming from the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and also represent the sacrifices of the Temple. This represents the past. In the synagogue the praying are facing the ark, which contains the Torah scrolls so represents the present of the full commitment to the whole of the Torah and its commandments. The synagogue itself is directed towards Jerusalem, which represents the future with the Third Temple and the better world which will come with it for everyone.

The presentation raised many points of interest and the conversations continued in the small groups.

Following the groups’ session we broke for the Jumaa prayer and lunch. 

The afternoon was dedicated to the Muslim and Christian perspectives.

1. Muslims should pray five times a day from sun rise to sunset. There is importance to the way of how to be prepared for the pray  through purification (“alwodoo”) and it is very important to clean the self  before praying because people pray for Allah (God). Samer also spoke about the declaring for praying through alathaan (announcer) and that is to call by the loudspeakers in the mosques. He also explained the way of praying and what people shall say during the prayer.

 The Christian presentation was given by Ms. Seren Ghattas. The presentation started with a brief introduction about Christianity and the Old and New Testament, which are the two parts – the old and the new – of the holy book in which the Christians believes. The prayer of Christians can be done any time, unlike Islam which has specific time for each pray.  The presentation gave an idea about the bread Christians eat after the prayer, which represent the body of Jesus which is called communion. 

In the concluding session many participants spoke to the high potential of interfaith encounter in the building of peaceful relations between the peoples. Many said the retreat helped them regain the hope they lost.

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The Interfaith Encounter Association

P.O.Box  3814, Jerusalem 91037, Israel

Phone: +972-2-6510520

Fax:     +972-2-6510557

Website: www.interfaith-encounter.org

Board: 

  Ms. Evelyne Savir (Chair)

  Dr. Shlomo Alon

  Ms. Nadia Tutunji-Nuseibeh

  Ms. Saheer Siam

  Mr. Rizk Azam

Dr. Yehuda Stolov, Executive Director

E-mail: yehuda@interfaith-encounter.org

Mr. Salah Alladin, Assistant Director

From the Wisdom NewsletterPlease click here (http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/index.php?id=879) to see it online.

Barcelona meeting – Reason and Scripture in Islam

 As part of the ongoing research project, “Towards a Contemporary Muslim Theology of World Religions”, supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a group of Muslim scholars recently met in Barcelona for an in-depth discussion of the subject of Reason and Scripture. The issues of Scripture and Reason are indeed fundamental to any theological project, for they touch on the foundations of epistemology – how we know what we know, and what are the grounds upon which we base our religious knowledge. The question of whether human reason has a role or significance within the more exalted realms of Divine knowledge and disclosure is a question that every religious tradition must confront in one way or another. In the case of Islam, this is a particularly vital issue, inasmuch as it once gave rise to the flourishing of the Islamic learning and civilization and inasmuch as it has a direct bearing upon the ways in which the Islamic religious sciences, including law, theology and spirituality, are understood and lived by the more than one billion Muslims on planet earth today. Any attempt at reviving the Islamic sciences and reformulating a Muslim approach to the global question of religious diversity hinges upon this question. In Barcelona, the team affirmed they do not see themselves as creators of a new theology or paradigm; rather, they envision their task to be one of scholarly restoration, intended to help restore and revitalize important aspects of the Islamic tradition that have been ignored, understudied, misrepresented, often maligned, and prohibited from public access. The fruit of this meeting will be written up into an essay, with contributions by multiple participants, and will be available in a few months.

Sacred places

The Pope began the day’s visits at the Dome of the Rock, located on the Temple Mount – a site sacred to all three monotheistic religions.

Katya Adler, BBC News, Jerusalem

He removed his shoes according to Islamic custom when entering a holy site, and met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Mohammad Hussein.

“Here the paths of the world’s three great monotheistic religions meet, reminding us what they share in common,” said the Pope.

The mufti called on the Pope to end Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians.

Pope Benedict then moved to the nearby Western  Wall where he met Israel’s chief rabbis.

The wall is part of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, dating back to a time when a Jewish temple stood there.

He said the visit gave him the opportunity to reiterate the Catholic Church’s commitment to “a genuine and lasting reconciliation between Christians and Jews”.

The Pope placed a written prayer into a gap in the wall, before standing in silence with his head bowed.

His prayer asked the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” to send “peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East, upon the entire human family”.

At the Mass in Josaphat Valley, he said the departure of many Christians in recent years was a “tragic reality”.

“In the Holy Land there is room for everyone,” he said to applause.

“I urge the authorities to respect, to support and to value the Christian presence here.”

The pontiff later visited the site reputed to be where Jesus took his Last Supper before his crucifixion and resurrection.

Pope Benedict XVI has said the suffering of Holocaust victims must never be denied as he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

“May the names of these victims never perish. May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten,” he said in the midst of survivors.

The pontiff began his trip to the Holy Land by saying in Tel Aviv that anti-Semitism was totally unacceptable.

He also voiced support for the Palestinians’ right to a homeland.

On the second day of his visit to the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the need for harmony and unity between Christians and Muslims.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the King Hussein Bin Talal mosque Saturday in Amman, Jordan. He said “Muslims and Christians, precisely because of the burden of our common history, so often marked by misunderstanding, must today strive to be known and recognized as worshippers of God, faithful to prayer, eager to uphold and lift by the Almighty decrees. Often, “it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is a real catalyst for tension and division” between faiths.  

Pope Benedict also spoke about Iraq’s Christians, asking the international community to “do everything possible to ensure that the ancient Christian community of that noble land has a fundamental right to peaceful coexistence with their fellow citizens.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope did not pray inside the mosque.

The pontiff arrived Friday in Amman for a weeklong visit to the Middle East that he said he hopes will “foster good relations between Christians and Muslims.”

It is the first papal visit to some of Christianity’s most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000.